Newbie question: removing thick hard packed snow

[kevinsky18]

I'm in the process of clearing driveways that have well over a foot of very hard packed snow on them. To my suprise I'm having to work the machine very hard to make any progress and I'm looking for suggestions on how to maybe make this easier. I have a simple straight blade on my Case 90xt. It's -30 outside and like I said this snow is very hard packed. My current technique is to drop the blade straight down like a knife and then crawl forward every 4-6 inches until I get about 4 feet of broken snow then back up and scoop. The inching forward and chopping just seems to take forever and the chopping motion of the blade seems very hard on the machine and concret under the snow. If I square off a section and then take a run at it my blade just bounces up on top of the snow no matter what angle I try and set the bucket at. Of course my front wheels are off the ground to get max weight onto the bucket to keep it from hopping up on top of the snow. If I try pushing forward more slowly the hard packed snow just stops me in my tracks and I spin my tires. Would teeth on the bucket be more ideal for this kind of work? Any other suggestions are appreciated.

 

[skidsteer.ca]

A tooth bucket is the answer for this imo
Ken

 

[500K_773]

A tooth bucket is the answer for this imo
Ken

If you can't use a tooth bucket, try angling your bucket about 70* instead of straight up and down. Also, don't lift the front tires off the ground. I feel this transfers more weight to the back of the machine and lets the bucket "pop" up too easily. I like to put just enough downforce to lighten the front tires.
Also if you can make a path through the hard pack, make the next passes while only cutting half a bucket width. This help break off large chunks of hardpack.

 

[crowne]

If you can't use a tooth bucket, try angling your bucket about 70* instead of straight up and down. Also, don't lift the front tires off the ground. I feel this transfers more weight to the back of the machine and lets the bucket "pop" up too easily. I like to put just enough downforce to lighten the front tires.
Also if you can make a path through the hard pack, make the next passes while only cutting half a bucket width. This help break off large chunks of hardpack.

I cleared a few hard packed driveways already, best I found is to have your bucket blade at 45 degree angle, digs it up pretty good, make sure the customer knows your not responsible for damages to driveway, I came to a dead stop when I hit the control joint on a concrete driveway once.

 

[destro]

I have a super scaper that I have to use from time to time.

 

[jklingel]

I have a super scaper that I have to use from time to time.

I've only done about 50-60 driveways now, but have realized two key points. Before we have a few NIGHTS of about 40 degrees, hard pack is just that, and sticks to the ground real tight. We wait, if at all possible. Two, like Ken said, a toothed bucket works 10 times better than a straight bucket. I had a customer who thought I would never get his hard pack up with a skid steer; he teaches machine operating at a mine here. But when I showed up w/ a toothed bucket, he said "Go for it. No problem." If I read right, you said it was -30? Holy Ice Cubes; let the stuff sit there till Ma Nature beats it up a little, if you can.